Chapter Twenty-Five
All my nastythoughts about Trace and Sienna left my head as I drank in the sight of Cash standing next to another man on the dock. He looked good, like someone I wanted to climb all over, but I reined my libido in as I waved at him.
Cash waved back, his teeth flashing white against his tan skin, his dark hair cropped close to his head. Though aviators shielded his eyes from the sun, I knew them to be a crystal-clear grey. At over six feet tall and with enough muscles to make any red-blooded woman drool, he all but turned me to putty when he was around.
I grinned at him foolishly as I waited for Trace to dock the boat, tossing Cash the line so he could tie us up.
“Who’s that?” Sienna asked.
“My boyfriend,” I said, watching as her eyes widened a bit as she swept her eyes over Cash.
I mean, it wasn’t like Trace wasn’t something to look at either. But just because you’re on a diet doesn’t mean you can’t look at the menu, right?
I hopped off the boat, stumbling a bit as the dock dipped when I landed. Cash caught me.
“Hey,” I said, grinning a little too widely as I looked up at him. Sure, I probably looked a mess with my hair wild from the salt water and mask marks on my face, but I didn’t care. I was just happy to have Cash in front of me.
“Hey yourself,” he said, before dipping his head and sliding a kiss across my lips. He tasted good, like sunshine and sin, and I leaned into him for just a moment, his very essence threatening to pull me under.
“Geez, guys, get a room,” Trace called, pulling me from my moment.
Really, Trace?
I turned and shot him a glare, one hand on my hip. I’d refrained from saying anything when Sienna had been practically crawling all over him all day, and he’s going to interrupt my one hello kiss? Please.
I opened my mouth to say something, but Cash pulled me back to him, brushing another kiss across my lips while he pulled me closer into his body before raising his head to look at Trace.
“Nice to see you as always, Trace,” Cash called, the warm timbre of his voice echoing against my ear pressed to his chest. There was something about Cash that made me feel all dainty and feminine, when actually I was far from being either of those things.
Trace just nodded at him before turning to Sienna. I pulled back and smiled stupidly up at Cash.
“I wasn’t expecting you so early,” I gushed, not wanting to sound like I was gushing, but unable to conceal how excited I was to see him.
“Surprise,” Cash said softly, his lips quirking in a smile just for me, making my insides feel like jelly.
“Ahem.” The man behind him cleared his throat and Cash laughed, pulling back from me.
“Althea, I’d like you meet my brother, Dylan.”
Well, color me surprised. Had I known I’d be meeting family today, I would have looked a little more presentable. Immediately reaching up to smooth my hair and praying I didn’t have any boogers in my nose, I peeked around Cash to the man who stood behind him.
It was easy to see, now that we were close up, that Cash and Dylan were brothers. They were both close in height, with the same muscular build, though Dylan’s hair was several shades lighter than Cash’s. Black Wayfarer sunglasses concealed his eyes, and he wore a distressed grey t-shirt tucked into fitted seersucker shorts. He had an easy style about him, but it only took a quick brush of my power against his mind to know that this was the gay brother Cash had promised to introduce to Beau. Knowing Beau, he was going to faint on sight when he got an eyeful of Dylan.
“Hi Dylan, so nice to meet you. I’m sorry I’m kind of a mess, I’ve just been scuba diving,” I explained, stepping around Cash and reaching out to shake Dylan’s hand.
Dylan shook my hand and then, when most people would have let it go, he held it for a moment longer, openly perusing me. From anyone else it would have been rude, but I didn’t get that sense from Dylan. After a moment, he turned to Cash and nodded.
“I like her,” Dylan said. Cash laughed and ran a hand through his hair, causing a few short pieces to stick up andmaking me want to go over and smooth them down. Or runmyhands through his hair. Or over his body.
Down, girl, I ordered myself.
“I like him as well,” I told Cash, and he laughed again. “Wait – Dylan and Cash. Is there a theme here?”
“Our mom’s a big music buff,” Dylan laughed.
“Ahh, that makes sense,” I said with a smile.
“We wanted to catch you early. I was hoping we could maybe poke around and look at few potential neighborhoods before going to lunch at Lucky’s,” Cash raised his eyebrow meaningfully at me. “Then maybe after, I can ditch this tagalong and you and I can have some alone time.”
